NSP and DelSolar Merger is Good for the Taiwanese Solar Cell Industry

“It’s a good beginning for Taiwan’s solar industry,” says M.J. Wang in a recent telephone interview. The boards of both firms have just approved phase 2 of their merger — 100% share swap — following NSP’s successful tender for a 15% stake in DelSolar. The merged firm will combine NSP’s 1.3 GWs of installed capacity with DelSolar’s 600 MWs for a total of nearly 2 GWs, making it Taiwan’s largest and the world’s second largest solar cell maker. Wang says that small scale is one of the key limiting factors for Taiwan’s solar makers. Taiwan has over 20 companies sharing less than 8 GWs of cell manufacturing capacity. “For individual companies it’s hard to compete with Chinese companies in terms of scale and reducing costs,” he observes. The larger scale of the new firm is likely to give it a stronger bargaining position in terms of raw materials cost and access to more markets ...